The dining-out habits of Hispanic customers who are fluent in English differ from those who primarily speak Spanish, a new study from The NPD Group has found.
Data from the Port Washington, N.Y.-based firm’s most recent survey revealed that Spanish-speaking customers are more likely to visit restaurants for morning meals and snacks than non-Hispanics and English-speaking Hispanics.
Among restaurant visits for Spanish speakers, 31 percent occur at breakfast and 22 percent take place during the evening-snack daypart.
By comparison, for both English-speaking Hispanics and all non-Hispanics, only 18 percent of visits happen during the morning daypart and 15 percent of visits occur during the evening-snack period.
“According to the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of Hispanics are most comfortable speaking Spanish, and our study finds that Spanish-speaking Hispanics use restaurants differently than English-speaking Hispanics,” said Bonnie Riggs, the research firm’s restaurant analyst. “These are important considerations when marketing to Hispanics. The messaging and communications need to be relevant to each group.”
The 2010 U.S. Census reported that there are some 50 million Hispanics living in this country, accounting for 16 percent of the entire population. Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD said Hispanics make 9.8 billion visits to restaurants in the United States each year.
Hispanic customers comfortable with either language are more likely than non-Hispanic consumers to bring children with them to restaurants, NPD found. More than half of restaurant visits involving Spanish speakers and one-third of those from English-speaking Hispanics involve children, while only 29 percent of restaurant visits from non-Hispanics include parties with children.
NPD launched two Hispanic research services in early 2011: CREST Hispanic, which tracks the differences in consumer behavior between Spanish- and English-speaking Hispanics, and a national study on Hispanic-consumer behavior based on the firm’s National Eating Trends methodology.
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].